Hey, remember a long time ago when I decided to make every recipe in a particular cookbook and blog about it? Yeah, I'd forgotten about it too. But look, here's a new post. And it's all about cheesecake!
The cake for Arizona is a Jalapeno Cheddar Cheesecake. I assume this is because southwestern cooking is known for having smokey and spicy things in it, like jalapenos. This cheesecake was the most interesting cake I think I've ever made, not from the creation perspective, but more from the "when the heck would you serve this?" perspective.
I was going to a wine and cheesecake party (what's that you say, the best party idea you've ever heard of? me too), so I was all set with the where to bring it. I'm still not 100% sure when I would serve it in "real life" though. The thing is, it wasn't really sweet. And it wasn't really savory. It was the perfect mix.
The recipe calls for a corn chip crust, which follows the same general idea of a cookie crust, but with corn chips instead. It was pretty ingenious, and tasty. The filling was an interesting mix of chopped jalapenos (for which I totally asked the guy working at the bagel shop for plastic gloves so I wouldn't make the same mistake I made the last time I tried to chop jalapenos and then couldn't put my contact lenses in without crying in pain for two days), shredded cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and, well, sugars. There was turbinado sugar, white sugar and brown sugar. So it was sweet. But it was savory. And a little bit spicy. In actuality, it was kind of awesome.
You bake it in a 9x13" dish, which made the serving a little bit odd. Since I was bringing it to a party, I decided to cut it and plate it up before going. I topped each piece with a slice of fresh jalapeno, which Brown recommended to let people know what was in it. That part didn't seem to work, but it looked cute. It was met with great esteem as well. By the people at the party, my brother, my mom, the guy who works at the bar who ate half the container I had with me. My father wasn't a big fan, but you can't please everybody all of the time. I think I would make the recipe again, maybe for a brunch. Or a super bowl party. If it wasn't so aesthetically confusing, it might go well with chili. In any case, this one's going in the recipe box.
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